


Ones and Zeroes

by Kayim



Category: The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Comment Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-01
Updated: 2011-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-15 07:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayim/pseuds/Kayim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen writes love notes in binary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ones and Zeroes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [james](https://archiveofourown.org/users/james/gifts).



> Written for a fic_promptly comment fic prompt requested by James.

Most people assume that binary is only used to represent numbers, but Jensen knows that isn't the case. There is a whole alphabet, both upper case and lower, and even special characters like ampersands and hash marks.

When he was younger, he discovered this and started using it as his own personal code, unbreakable and completely secure from his sister or his parents. He wrote it by hand, his zeroes even having the line diagonally through them like it would on a computer screen. There was a certain amount of pride involved in what he did – even if no one could translate the code, he wanted them to be impressed with how technical it was. People would recognize it as binary code and say "That Jensen is a smart kid".

He still uses it now, scribbling private little notes to himself in a handwriting that is a little less neat than it was back then. He still draws the line through the zeroes though.

Cougar is used to finding the lines and circles scribbled on the corners of books and mission notes. He asked what they meant once and Jensen simply launched into one of his tirades about how no one understood the basics of computer languages, so he simply nodded and backed away. He's not stupid though – he knows what binary is – but he can't understand why someone would even bother. But then this is Jensen and who knows why he does most of what he does.

He's out of the room, leaving Cougar alone while he heads out for some kind of technical briefing. Cougar lets his eyes drift over to the sheets of paper tucked underneath the computer's keyboard and wonders what they say.

Jensen's made sure they all know enough about computers for him to do something as simple as find a decent binary translator online, but that's not Cougar's way. He copies down one of the groups of digits onto his own sheet of paper and carefully reads the webpage that shows him what each letter translates as. It doesn't take him long to work through the first few letters.

01000011 01101111 01110101 01100111 01100101 01110010

It's his name, he realizes. Jensen is writing _about him_. Part of his brain tells him to put down the piece of paper – this isn't some technical jargon – but the part of him that wants to know as much about Jensen as he possibly can argues the point. And almost wins.

He compromises with himself. Five more words. That's it.

01001001 . 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 . 01111001 01101111 01110101 . 01100001 01110010 01100101 . 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 . 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 .

 _[Translation: I know you are reading this.]_

He drops the piece of paper on the desk and backs away. Damn him.

How is he supposed to stop reading now? It's written for him. Of course he's supposed to read it.

01010011 01101001 01101100 01101100 01111001 . 01101101 01100001 01101110. 01001001 . 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 . 01111001 01101111 01110101.

 _[Translation: Silly man. I love you.]_

He smiles to himself. "Love you too," he mutters under his breath.


End file.
